A failure to understand social sciences

Hanif Kureishi claimed Thatcher had "no understanding of what a central place the arts have in British life" (Singing songs of rage, 9 April). She also had no understanding of the social sciences. Planning to close the Social Science Research Council, Thatcher commissioned Lord Rothschild to conduct an independent investigation. Unexpectedly, he concluded it would be an "act of extreme vandalism" to abolish the council. But Thatcher decreed the word "science" be deleted from the title. No paradox that her media organiser, Lord Saatchi, got a first-class social science degree and the MacMillan prize for sociology at the LSE.Professor Judith OkelySchool of anthropology, Oxford University

• Are we to draw any conclusions from the news that of three Premiership clubs advertising for graduates to work for no pay as interns (Report, 13 April), two are the clubs whose chairmen called for a minute's silence for Margaret Thatcher?Sue HarrisStockport